Hi Everyone, New Here!

[Markie Madden]

Hi! I've just signed up and this is my first post! I'm a 40 year old disabled wife and mother of two. Cancer took me out of the traditional workforce two years ago, so now I've got more time to devote to a love of mine: writing. I'm an independent author and publisher.

Recently, we had some family friends visiting for 4th of July, and my old Kodak Easy Share decided to give up the ghost, more or less. It won't keep batteries in it for more than a day. Since my birthday was coming up, I bought myself a Canon Power Shot.

I took photography in high school and learned to love it (still, in fact, have my old Pentax!), so I've always enjoyed taking and sharing photos. But the world has changed a lot now, and though my camera isn't high-end, I'm here to see what I can learn. I use a program called Paint.net to manipulate images, for advertising my books and just cropping of everyday photos. I'm still learning the ins and outs of it as well. But I'd love to get into conversations about cleaning up camera "noise", proper framing when shooting a picture, and so on. It's been a long time since high school and I'm sure I'll be bugging the (bleep) out of everyone for a while! Just fair warning!

 

[jaomul]

Welcome to TPF

You'll find many only happy to help

 

[Markie Madden]

Thanks jaomul! I've also just invested in a 2tb external hard drive for my tablet. My writing software (can't live without that) takes up a lot of space by itself and I was shooting, oh about 60-70 pics a day with the new camera! Only keeping the best, of course!

But digital photography isn't the same as old-school film photography!

 

[jaomul]

2tb will hold a lot though, so at the end of the day it probably all work out a bit cheaper than film. You could if you wanted set up a Flickr account. The free account gives (1 or 2) tb of storage for free and you can view your photos online anywhere, it also is a good host for posting photos here on TPF if you are interested in sharing or getting critique. Enjoy

 

[Markie Madden]

Thanks, I've got a Flickr but don't have anything uploaded to it. I do have photos up at Shutterfly. Mostly I just got Flickr the other day for some Creative Commons photos for video trailers I was producing.

 

[Jasii]

Welcome aboard MM. Look around and am sure you'll love it here.
Writing and Photography? coming to think of it what a combo that makes?
Cheers,
Jasii

 

[Markie Madden]

Thanks for the welcome Jasii! I'm actually attempting to learn how to design my own covers so I don't have to pay for them. Here's one attempt. The city background is a purchased photo. From there, I cut out a small square where I was going to put the moon. Then I started back with the original, put the moon in (which was one of my photos), then put the corresponding cloudy sky back over the moon, and made it a little transparent.

 

[Jasii]

Nice! Why do i see the moon as an ellipse

 

[Markie Madden]

It's cuz I'm still learning the ins and outs of my photo software!

 

[CanonFob]

Welcome!!!

 

[Markie Madden]

Thanks Canon! Glad to be here! And I'm sure I'll be asking a million questions!

 

[CanonFob]

Thanks Canon! Glad to be here! And I'm sure I'll be asking a million questions!

I'll help with whatever I can.

 

[snowbear]

Welcome aboard.

Kicking cancer's @$$ - good for you.

 

[Markie Madden]

Thanks Snow! It want easy, let me tell you. Last nearly a year of my life either in the hospital, in bed, or in doctor's offices. My cancer was leukemia, blood cancer, and couldn't be treated out patient. And the closest hospital capable of the level of care I needed was almost 4 hours away from home! It wasn't a good time for any of us.